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COHfRlGHT DEPOSIT 



The Tragedy of Saul 



FIRST KING OF ISRAEL 




G. W. DILLINGHAM CO. 

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 



Two OofMes tiffirflived 

SLP 6 1904 
I Cooyrlrht Errtrv 

eLAS4 ^ XXO. No. 



COPY I 



?6 3r3 7 



Copyright, 1904, by 
LEWIS A. STORRS 



(A I! rights reserved) 



The Tragedy of Saul 



Issued September, igo4 




>• Supporters of David. 



THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 

PERSONS 

SAUL, King of Israel. 

SAMUEL, Judge of Israel. 

DAVID, A Captain in Saul's Army and aspirant for the throne. 

JONATHAN, A Son of Saul. 

ABNER, General of Saul's Army. 

ABISHAI ) 

AHIMELECH 

ADRIEL, A Sheikh in treaty with Saul. 

DOEG, An Edomite of Saul's Court. 

AHIM ANETZ, An Officer of Saul's Army. 

BEZER, An Officer of Saul's Court. 

MALACHI, A Man of Judah. 

IRA, A Man of Issachar. 

ARMORBEARER to Saul. 

A PRIEST. 

MICH AL, Daughter of Saul. 

TAMAR, Servant of Michal. 

WITCH OF EN-DOR, A Necromancer. 

Officers, Soldiers, Aides, Herald, Women, Musicians, Israelites. 



THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 

ACT I. 

Scene i. Near Mizpeh. 
First Israelite, Second Israelite. 

First Israelite. 
How think you of the state of Israel ? 

Second Israelite. 
'Tis most unmerciful. 
Philistia, firmed on the littoral 
Of the Great Sea, in Gaza, Ashkelon, 
Doth burst our crumbling borders on the west 
And sits in citadel on Gibeah. 
On east the fearful Moabite lies wait 
And giant Amalek. So circumscript 
Are grown our liberties that we are like 
To perish in the bulge of heathen flood. 

First Israelite. 
Had we another Moses to scourge in 
The tribes to common purpose and one front 



8 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

Against the enemy, we should possess 

The way of Egypt, and bad Dagon's host 

Drive back into the sea from which they spawned. 

Second Israelite. 
How shall a sacerdotal man, a seer 
And judge schooled in the law, give Israel peace ? 
We need a king of regal name and state. 
What think you of the son of Kish? But now 
I heard he gropes toward the throne, has seen 
The holy man of Mizpeh and thence comes 
With strange report, so that the mockers say, 
Is Saul among the prophets '? 

First Israelite. 

I, indeed. 
Have heard the news but take no heed of it. 
Shall we bow down to twelfth-born Benjamin ? 
Let Judah whelp a king to Israel; 
Against the lion none will dare rebel. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene 2. At Mizpeh. 
Malachi, a man of Judah; Ira, a man of Issa- 
char. 

Malachl 
Peace to the son of Imri. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY. OF SAUL 9 

Ira. 

To thee peace. 

Malachi. 
Thou comest a long journey to the sacrifices. 

Ira. 
A long journey, true, and the country is turbulent. 

Malachi. 
I believe it is very turbulent. 

Ira. 

What said great Moses when he led our fathers 
forth from fatty Egypt to the wilderness? 
that we should have a land of milk and 
honey : and there were sundry prophecies of 
our repose in this land of delectable promise. 
How then*? 

Malachi. 
The land is fertile. 

Ira. 

Yes, of many things. What is it that our catde 
have swelling udders if we must milk them 
with the sword? What worth are mellow 



lo THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

fields if the pillager must reap them? Three 
hundred fifty and six years we have been in 
the land, and Jacob is a motley nation, of 
jarring and dismembered parts. 

Malachi. 
*Tis said there is a ceremony toward to-day will 
mend our state. 

Ira. 

'Tis said 'tis true 'tis said : 'twere better when 

'tis said 'tis done. 

Malachi. 
How look the northern tribes at the affair ? 

Ira. 

But coldly. We would have a king indeed, 
But not from fierce, unmannered Benjamin. 
A king of parts, who wears an eminence 
Of valor, pedigree or common love 
That shall compel us to his willing rule. 

Malachi. 
Why, such an one is Saul. His person makes 
Most brave compare against our puny race. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL ii 

When he shall lead against the Ammonite 
Who now impinges on our eastern front 
He'll prove his princely strain efFulgently, 
As full a king as Nahash. 

Ira. 

Hush! the Seer. 
[Enter Samuel, Herald and People, 

Herald. 
By tribes and by your families, assemble ! 

Samuel. 

Ho, men of Israel, hear ! 

Since childhood till the age you see in me 

I have been in your witness. I have judged 

The body of your law, intinerant 

In Gilgal, Mizpeh, Bethel, and have been 

The archon of your theocratic state. 

Say now, have I done wrong to any man, 

Weighed justice 'gainst a bribe, your chattels 

tithed. 
Or made oppression sit upon your necks ? 

People. 
Thou hast been just and merciful. 



12 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

Sai JEL. 
Yet unaggrieved you strain against my yoke. 
Would cast me in the by-ways of old age, 
And with a sounding name infatuate 
Will have a king. 

People. 
A king, show us the king. 

Samuel. 
What shibboleth is in a mouthing word ? 
What conjure that spells freemen with its taste ? 
Can guttural acclaim mask from your sense 

The thing that is a king I A master that 

Will bruise you with his heel, will draft your sons 
To make noblesse of his drone-fatting court 
And will distrain your substance to shore up 
His pinnacled estate such is a king! 

People. 
The ceremony tardies with these words. 

Samuel. 
Since Adam in that garden orient 
Broke fealty to his Maker, 'tis decreed 
That his posterity should not know good 
But by the taste of evil. Make the lot. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 13 

Herald. 
It falls to Benjamin. 

People. 
And of him, who ? 

Herald. 
To Saul, the son of Kish. Let him be brought. 

\Enter Saul^ attended. 

Samuel. 
Behold your king, who by divinest rite 
And holy oil is here elect to be 
Your sovereign and vice-gerent of the Lord. 

People. 
God save the king ! 

Malachi. 

What think you, Imri's son, 
Now that the matter's done, of its event ? 
This Saul, does not he measure with my words? 
Compelling majesty sits on him, bold 
Against base argument : his blocky neck. 
Like Bashan bull's, is pillared in the thwart 
Of his broad trunk : as on Libanus spires 
The cedar from its feebler forest folk. 
So Saul, and is embodiment of king. 



14 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

Ira. 

And shall this blob of girth rule over me ? 
Prerogative of what doth boost him up 
Above us all, his peers, and dub him lord ? 
A cubit of gross flesh ? Fie ! by such test 
We had been vassal to the Canaanites. 
Can sacred oil and ritual of words 
Purge to the soul and transubstantiate 

Its essence to a thing it was not ? Then 

Then of the alchemy that's done in him. 
Refining his dross part from the sublime. 
Let us have voucher to our proving sense 
And patent of this Saul imperial. 

My suffrage waits this miracle. Till then 

Till bursts the masking chrysalis of king. 
My spirit is as free as any man's 
To say, I will, I won't, and to enjoy 
Its natural conceits. Only itself 
Its proper liberties can harness in 
And give the bridle to its own elect. 
Volition is the bit of loyalty. 

Malachi. 
To such lose hitch abandoned, I dare say 
The chariot of state would run away. 

[Exeunt, 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 15 

Scene 3. Israelite camp. 
Saul, Abner, Soldiers of the Guard. 

Abner. 
How does the glad morning find my lord and 
king? 

Saul. 

Most wretchedly well. 

Abner. 
Your majesty doth appose opposing words. Not 
even fiat sealed can match such unmatched 
language into sense. It is a jest. 

Saul. 
It is a state of kings, who are complex 
Of such a dual being that at once 
Themselves can be the antipodes of things 
And can in their own persons juxtapose 
The poles of thought. No man's more well 

than I, 
Nor takes his ration with more appetite. 
Were somewhat less the burden of my years 
And this, my royal dignity, I might 
Go out to the outrageous pig who wagers us, 



i6 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

Not hopeless of success. Look, how I'm thewed ! 
Am I not still the army's paragon ? 
No ague's in me and no weather rheum. 

Oh, I am well, well, well and wretched ill. 

The something that is lodged within my core, 

The quick, elusive element of Saul 

Is in such tension with my lusty flesh 

That I do fear 'twill make divorcement thence. 

Or that, dissolving through my blood, 'twill fill 

Me with its humors. How's the army's state ? 

Abner. 
Not badly, yet not well. - 

Saul. 
Why, you, too, play with paradoxes now. 

Abner. 
The army's like a horse broad in the wind. 
Straight-posted 'neath the withers and high-flanked. 
Yet of no mettle ; so his ass's head 
Is chuck with frights and shies at all alarms. 
The army hath all organs but a heart. 

Saul. 
Chop off their feet and they'll grow heart o'er night. 
The timid hare that cannot run will fight. 



Scenes] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 17 

Abner. 
I think 'tis so, for in the skirmishings 
With which our front is daily exercised, 
Advantage hath not leaned to either side. 
Yet dare I not the general battle make, 
So cowed our men are by wild, senseless fears 
And by the champion who, panoplied, 
Stalks daily in our vision, insolent. 

Saul. 
Is there no man in Israel who dares 
To pit his paltry life against this brute ? 
To hazard glory on a stroke, or sink 
Inconsequential to the dust he is *? 
Hath Jacob only daughters '? Let them then 
Go grind for the Philistines. To your posts. 

\Exeunt Abner and soldiers. 
I'm thirty years a king. 'Tis a long time 
To feed on a confection that's so sweet. 
Yet I'm not glutted with its taste, but still 
Each morsel's sweeter than the one before. 
'Tis long, I said *? Aye, yes, for many men 
Have made their span and gone, in thirty years. 
The bondman counting to the jubilee, 
The lover warming to a maid, to them 



i8 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

'Tis ages long. But in the calendar 
Of us who pause the chasing sprite of power 
'Tis but the zenith segment of a day. 
And then the dark. The dropping sun 

Sets in Philistia and day is done. 

[Enter a Captain of the Guard 

Captain. 
Your Majesty ! a lad would speak with you. 

Saul. 
A lad *? and of what favor % 

Captain. 

Not o'er large. 

Saul. 
His name ? 

Captain. 

I know not. 

Saul. 
Well, his business then % 

Captain. 
'Tis such as one must mention with broad smiles. 
He would defy that giant one of Gath 
Who vexes us. 



Scenes] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 19 

Saul. 
I'll see him ; bid him in. 

\Exit Captain. 
Away forebodings and be Saul again ! 



These devil thoughts that in my vacant hours 
Come stealing on me, loot me of my sex. 
My crown that I can touch, my tempered sword 
With which I've cleft poor bodies from their souls. 
This host who hold their lives upon my nod. 
Are they but figments, dreams'? False devils' 

crew, 
Back, back into the crannies of the night ! 
Saul orders and you flee. 

{Enter David and soldiers. 
How lad ! what news *? 

David. 
Thy servant is from Bethlehem arrived, 
The son of Jesse who despatched me here 
To greet my brethren. Coming then, I heard 
That one uncircumcised doth bark 'gainst us. 
Defying undefied. Him would I meet 
In battle wager, if my lord approve. 

Saul. 
Why, thou'd be but a mouthful for his maw. 



20 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

David. 
My king, your servant kept his father's sheep, 
And when a Hon from the wilderness 
Came hungrily, I seized him by the beard 
And slew him. There's a hardihood in me 
Beyond what seems. 

Saul. 

Go to my arsenal; 
What's there is at your order, man you well. 
Ho, guards ! attend this man, I hold him dear. 



Your Majesty! 



David. 

Saul. 

What then? 



David. 

I am a youth 

Unexercised in implements of war. 
What virtue's in them to another man. 
In me would be defect. My only craft 
I learned untutored on the feeding hills 
Where I, with limbs unhindered, led my flock. 

Saul. 
And so? 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 21 

David. 

And so I'll buckle with this man. 

Saul. 
The matter lies with you, and fare you well. 

[Exeunt David and soldiers. 
And if — 'tis a wild chance — yet if you win, 
A danger that's without will come within. 
And thrice more imminent will threat my throne 
Than that Philistine. Go, sling out your stone : 
'Twill couple with your fate but not with mine. 
The sun descends : another sun will shine. 

\_A pause. 
Hark I what's this murmur, soughing like the sea, 
Or like the wind among the forest tops ? 
The camp, agape with rumor of what's on. 
Jerks out its breath with doubting aspirates 
Which it with ready lingual will inflect 
To match what's done. Ho, ho, my shepherd 

boy! 
This hour you stride the world, footing the poles 
Of fame and failure, and with single play 
Will cast for which is yours. Ugh ! that's the 

itch. 
That there's a balance in your joust of fate, 



22 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

The winning or the loss superlative. 

And either case yourself ripped from the crowd, 

A moment's name, though stenched with ribaldry. 

And I have laid two hazards where was one, 

By David or Goliath Fm undone. 

And yet, and yet — let me pluck back my heart 

That starts at each new terror with a smart. 

Tut, stripling moriturus, tut, I say ! 

You louse to make Philistine holiday ! 

You ghost in imminence, of hope forlorn, 

Here I exorcise you. Whiff and begone I 

[Another pause. 
What mean these shouts'? The battle's on? 

The rout ? 
So perish Saul ! (grasps his sword^ And yet — 

nay, nay; I'll not 
So unaccounting go to my account, 
But gore the first who offers me his breast. 
And with his spirit fly unto the shades. 

[Enter a Captain. 

Captain. 
Oh, king ! 

Saul. 
Still king? the news? 



Scenes] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 23 

Captain. 

The ruddy lad — 

Saul. 
Is buzzards' meat. 

Captain. 

He's laid a carrion feast 

Will gorge the vultures to the spewing point. 

Goliath's dead. 

Saul. 

I wish we'd served him worse. 



Captain. 



How worse ? 



Saul. 

Why, let him live, you fool. 
Suppose an ague'd twinged his hulking frame, 
As like enough it would, or other ill, 
And writhed him with great groanings. From 

such case 
He is delivered and with quick despatch 
Is slid into beatitude. 

Captain. 

My lord, 
Twas thought this consummation was your wish. 



24 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

Saul. 
Have I said otherwise, thou chucklehead *? 
Must know a king can pity where he slays. 
There's business for thee, go. 

Captain. 

My lord, adieu. 

[Exit. 
Saul. 

Poor giant! In that nether land you've made. 

Some day if days are reckoned where all's 

dark — 
I, too, arriving, shall strike hands with you 
And tell how kindly I was so unkind. 
But lest you should be lonesome while I stay, 
I'll send you the Philistines' souls to-day. 

[Exit. 



Scene 4. The royal house at Gibeah. 
First Officer, Second Officer. 

First Officer. 
I hear there is to be distribution of office to-day to 
him who slew the Goliath. 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 25 

Second Officer. 
So it is reported. 

First Officer. 
Is it said how it will go ? 

Second Officer. 
No more than that the king's not too well afFec- 
tioned toward him. 

First Officer. 
Why that is well. If every upstart who does 
some sounding thing in the public audience 
is to be posted over us who have served hard 
commissions in the trade of war, 'twill come 
that the army will be the boosting place of 
adventurers who will play dice with fate, 
staking nothing against chance of great 
reward. 

Second Officer. 
Here comes the king ; we shall know more anon. 
[Enter King, Ahner^ Jonathan 

> Saul. 
Ho, generals I I thank you for your pains 
To be so promptly here at my command. 



26 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

First Officer. 
'Tis but our duty, which we hold most dear. 

Saul. 
I much rely on you. Our purpose here 
Is by our royal warrant to affirm 
To David that which he deserves of us. 
What is the measure of his service ? Speak. 

First Officer. 
As much as great Saul likes, there is no gauge. 
A king withholds and gives of his free purse ; 
No man may bargain with him for a price 
Since all are wholly conscript to his will. 
So what is given is royal overplus. 

Saul. 
My general, you never were a king. 

First Officer. 
Nor would be. 

Saul. 
Pray God keep you in that mind. 
Now with approval of my counsellors 
I nominate to have a thousand men, 
David, the son of Jesse. Is it well ? 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 27 

Second Officer. 
The king does always well. 

Saul. 

Let it be sealed. 

[Shouts without. A procession passes before 
the door of women, singing^ 

Women. 
Saul hath slain his thousands 
And David his ten thousands. 

Abner. 
They celebrate your victory, O king. 

Second Officer. 
Of such great deeds the very rocks must sing. 

Saul. 
I see no music in their cracking throats. 
That song has hailed me all my homeward march 
Till, beggared of all sense when it began, 
It stales by repetition to disgust. 

First Officer. 
In truth it is a dull, ill-mannered song. 



28 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

Saul. 
There is a gnawing air in Philisty 
That's turned my stomach rodent, till all hours 
It clamors to be fed. Ho, sluggard cooks ! 
Set on the feast or I shall starve away. . 
My generals will eat with me to-day*? 

First and Second Officers. 
The king commands us. 

Saul. 
Good, then you shall stay. 
Kind Abner, we our pleasure must set by 
To lend thee to thy duties for this time 
Or thou shouldst be our dearest guest at board. 

[Exit Abner. 
Dear Jonathan, of our full state the heir. 
Sit by our hand, as thou art near our heart. 
Let music be the condiment of food. 

\Enter musicians. 
'Tis done. And now eat large, as soldiers should. 

First Officer. 
How music is familiar of the soul 
And wiles it through the gamut of its moods, 
From high to base, from grave to piping gay ! 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 29 

That thrumming fool who, in the battle wage, 
Sang murder in my heart and brave despair. 
Can make my taps leak like a love-lost maid's 
When he descanteth with a solemn theme. 

Jonathan. 
Why, so thou art a man and not a brute 
Which can discern no episode of sounds. 

Saul. 
What is the soul, this flitty element 
Which is so willy-nilly played with ^ 

Jonathan. 

That 

The king must answer or unanswered be. 

Saul. 
Is not itself an harmony, which breathes 
While I'm atune unto the universe ^ 
So, when a chord strikes in the world, the soul 
Through all its octaves, with a quick response, 
Sings unison. There was a soul named Saul 
Who once was set unto this melody. 
Felt joy, ambition, love as he was touched, 
And rang in choral with the stars of fate. 



30 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act i 

But now, some string which he's no wit to find 
Has been let down and he is out of pitch. 
The Saul who rounded in the sneering tribes 
To his authority, that sometime Saul 
Is dumb, is dead as Rameses. 

Jonathan. 

My lord. 
The harper is without whose gentle art 
Is wont to charm this melancholy off. 

Saul. 
Let him come in ; 111 test his art again : 
And may my devils enter into him ! 

[Enter David with harp. 
So merry, fool ? Why I was merry once ; 
But no friend had the grace to kill me then 
And send me to Elysium. Now's too late : 
I am out-aged to enter with the blest. 
But with old men and kings and all such damned 
Shall fester in the weary, dreary pit. 
I would be kinder to thee, lad. [Hurls his spear. 

See, now! 
Would Saul have missed his aim like that '? 

[Hurls another* 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 31 

Again ! 
The fates are turned to you, I fight in vain. 

Jonathan. 
Good father, see how long the shadows grow. 
Cast off the fretting vestment of the state 
And with the king of day go to thy couch. 

Saul. 
May I Hke him, rise on the morrow bright. 
My generals, and all my guests, good night. 

[Exeunt all but Saul and Jonathan. 
My son. 

Jonathan. 
My sire. 

Saul. 
Last night I dreamed of thee. 

Jonathan. 
I would for thy own peace thou loved me less. 

Saul. 
Would'st thou be king? 

Jonathan. 
Nay, but the king's dear son. 



32 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

Saul. 
Thou wishest what thou hast. Were all so wise 
There'd be less heartache in this poor old world. 
Wast thou in bed last night ? 

Jonathan. 

Aye, sir. 

Saul. 

And slept? 

Jonathan. 
As tight as any tick. 

Saul. 

Yet at the hour 
When night stands balancing the day, thou came, 
All panoplied and stood beside my bed ; 
Thy sword was held at hilt, as in defense ; 
By every line of cognizance 'twast thou. 
And I, upstarting, did address thee, " Son, 
What urgency is here ? Does murder wake ? 
Or dark rebellion paramour with night "? " 
Thou answered not, but moved a pace away, 
Then ripped thy weapon round with fearful swath, 
As if a foe affronted, where was void. 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 33 

And now, most strange, thy blade broke with a 

snap, 
As it had met an armor, where was none. 
Therewith thou vanished back into the night. 
Can spirits, which no substance are, can they 
Parade in all the frummery of sense ? 
For it was thou, 'twas very thou, my son. 

Jonathan. 
Think not of it, for I've not stalked the night. 
Sleep now, and I'll not visit you again. 

Saul. 
I'll walk yet in the gloam awhile. Good night. 

[Exit Jonathan. 
There was an oak in Gibeah of Saul. 
Some accident of nature set its seed 
Into a silt-filled dip of fallow ground : 
The rains in gentle courses flowed it round ; 
The fat land loved it and gave it her suck. 
Fared so, it grew o'ertopping, brawned, and broad 
And all its little fellows bowed, " My lord." 
Was it a praise to grow when fixed so snug 
Upon the very teat of almony ? 
Then were it merit in the stones to fall. 



34 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

The wind-dashed waves to beat, the stars to whirl, 

And nature to move by a law decreed. 

Its height was measured in its corn; each leaf, 

Right numbered, lobed, and in its order posed, 

To the Great Thought that overrules the world 

Was certified to be before it was. 

What then is future and what past, but that 

The eyes of mortals only see behind? 

Nay, there's no has-been nor to-be, but all 

Is present and etern. I grew a king. 

My dam lay with my fate and from her womb 

Belched forth a crown inchoate on my brow, 

Which I must wear — till when ? Thou pole-fixed 

star. 
Divine to me my morrows, what they are ! 

[Enter Michal. 

MiCHAL. 

The king walks late. 

Saul. 

And so sweet Michal doth. 
How is my puss? 

MiCHAL. 

How is the king ? My soul 
So echoes unto yours that if you say 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 35 

" *Tis well," I answer " Well." But if you say— 
Oh, I do fear that if, you glower so. 

Saul. 
Fear nothing, child, there is no health in fear, 
But it will leach the ruby from thy cheek. 
Were there a medicine in those thine eyes, 
The state should not go sodden. 

MiCHAL. 

So, perhaps 
I have a pharmacy will lighten it. 

Saul. 
Nay, chuck, 'twill only lighten, as I fear. 
When it unloads the house of Saul. Go now 
And think no more of what I've said. I wear 
The name of what I have been. Thou, sweet 

rose. 
By nature's stamp art hailed imperial. 
Reign out thy blooming hour, and seed, and die. 
Now to thy bed, or thou'lt unsceptered lie. 

MiCHAL. 

My father, there's a philter of our sex 
Can sometimes physic off these stagnant ills 



36 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act I 

When grosser drugs but harry up the state 
And leave the fester without purge. You fear 
The son of Jesse. Have I guessed ? 

Saul. 

You have. 

MiCHAL. 

Then by the test of my clairvoyance proved 
In diagnose of thy disease, mayhap 
You'll trust me to prescribe its cure. The way 
That leads to eminence lies foul with falls. 
Thy darts but prick ambition to safe jump 
Where, cozened, it might stumble. Rather, then. 
Sow soft seduction in th' adventurer's path 
That shall flick off his gaze from its sole fix ; 
Yoke on him thy fast loves. So if he gulf. 
Thou, conscience-free, art rid of him. But if. 
Despite, he shall arrive the bastioned top. 
Thou shalt be parcener of what he wins. 
The sun in Virgo sits. The Heavens spell 
The horoscope of Saul. And now, farewell. 

\Exit. 
Saul. 
'Tis a wise chuck ; her wit outpaces mine. 
The sun is in the virgin ; well, what on't 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 37 

But that his amour scorches up the earth *? 

And yet 1 have a daughter who's a maid 

And apple of desire. Ah, Merab mine ! 
Should I pawn thee into this checkered game 
And by thy rape save my chief piece from mate "? 
'Tis a last move. However, it shall fall, 
Thou wilt remain a vestige stock of Saul. 

[Exit. 



ACT II. 

Scene i. On roof of Saul's house in Gibeah. 

MiCHAL. 

I love my father — which, of course, I should. 
I love him once as sire and twice as king; 
And so, by thrice afFectioned loyalty, 
Fm liege to him and to his stable throne. 
But if — for there is ever that bad chance. 
He should o'ertopple from his royal nub — 
As pray he don't ! yet there's the ugly if — 
Why, so I'll love him still right filially. 
But 'twill not peg him to his top again, 
Nor sweet his bitter raze from dynasty. 
To drag me down into his general wrack. 
I'm so conform to my high edifice, 
I'd fit but sorry in some vulgar niche. 
Live Saul ! if live he can. And if he's termed. 
Live David ! But live Michal eitherwise. 
I've meddled to mend up the state of things 
And been lurched over by my own advice. 
Well, it's a common hap perverse, that some 
Shall wear success which others' wit did win. 



Scene i] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 39 

But I'm not dead yet, Merab dear. Perchance 

There'll be a back-lurch will right up this mess. 

Ho, Tamar ! 

\_Enter Tamar. 

Tamar. 
Here, sweet princess. 

MiCHAL. 

Adriel 
Has audience this evening with the king. 

Tamar. 
My lady, he but now comes from the king. 

MiCHAL. 

So soon ^ How looked he "? 

Tamar. 

Something grave, methought. 

MiCHAL. 

Most excellent ! there's appetite in him 

For more than he's been fed with. There's a hope 

To bait these grave and hungry fools. It's those 

Who're fatted with success of their desires 

Who sullen at advisement. Go to him. 

Say I have business near concerns him. Say 

I wait him here. 



40 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

Tamar. 
My lady, I obey. 



lExiL 



MiCHAL. 



Poor popinjay of power, fantastic sheikh ! 
I love you not, but I shall seem to love, 
To make your fortunes mine, to crowd them on 
With all my little wit political. 
For which good turn I'll quit you of all thanks. 
If I can move you on the checking square 
And sell you 'gainst that piece impediment 
Which balks my game, why then, old camel- 
prince. 
The devil take you ! Hark, I sniff your steps. 
Now let slow music play, so shall we see 

How you will puppet it. 

[Enter Adriel. 

Good evening, sir. 

Adriel. 

Sweet queen, my salutation is to you 

Whose eyes, like mimic stars delectable. 

Witch off the ghosts of night. You sent for me? 



Scene I] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 41 

MiCHAL. 

Aye, I've a word to speak in your sole ear 

May be of import to us both. Art thou 

In mood to Hsten ? 

Adriel. 

Speak, my ears are pricked. 

MiCHAL. 

Thou courtest something to the king. 

Adriel. 

And he 

Has made thee partner of his counsels ? 

MiCHAL. 

No; 
But I've a cypher with the elfin folk 

Who traffic in king's secrets and things whist 

In bed chambers and in the dark-fouled holes 

Where men do hide to pigment their bad thoughts. 

Them summoning at the accustomed hour, 

I heard how thou had suit unto the king 

Which he indifferent heard. 

Adriel. 

Bright star of Saul, 
Instruct me to clairvoyance of such sort 
And I will give thee pay munificent. 



42 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

MiCHAL. 
Hadst thou all Araby to buy this sense 
'T would be base barter, being what thou art. 
'Tis only woman who, as recompense 
For her low sex, can conjure with the sprites, 
As only she would entertainment find 
In what is done 'twixt sheets. But this delays 
The business we are here to speak upon. 

Adriel. 
Your pardon, pray. For some years I have had 
A league of friendship with your father, Saul, 
The which I've journeyed hither to renew 
With ceremony, and if possible 
To add some strength to it, which increase he. 
Disdaining the advantage of my pact. 
Demurs to. 

MiCHAL. 

'Twas his stomach answered thee. 
For thou approached him at the lean, sour hour 
When he's not fed. There's more diplomacy 
In dinners than in drawling argument. 
A dumpling round and seasoned to the taste 
May oft decide the grave affairs of state. 
I have a certain favor with the king 



Scene I] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 43 

Who in his stresses sometimes summons me 
To wheedle off, with silly art, his care, 
Or clarify the murk of vexed affairs. 
I'll ply him with thy cause as I have chance, 
Speak large of thy importance and declare 
Thou'lt article thy full demand or none. 
The while I'll not seem thy ambassador, 
But with hap phrases, as " I think," " I hear," 
I'll keep the business quick within his heart 
Where incubated 'twill in ripe time hatch, 
When thou canst thy desired convention make 
And sponsor it with rites effectual. 
My sister shall be hostage to thy bed 
Of the observance of the things agreed. 

Adriel. 
Thy sister ? Is it not let out that she 
Is trothed unto this captain of renown 
Who scales advancement with great leaps ^ 

MiCHAL. 

What then ? 
Till priest interlocute and bed confirm 
She is negotiable where it shall seem 
Expedient. 'Tis the prerogative 



44 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

And burden of us born of royal get 
To be the merchandise of civic needs 
And pledge of signatories' promises. 
You love my sister ? 

Adriel. 

As the solstice sun 
Enamours with the Sharon rose, so I 
Grow hot to Merab, jewel of my soul. 

MiCHAL. 

Forswear no more, for I am satisfied 
Thou hast a right accommodating love. 
Efface thyself till thou shalt hear from me. 

Adriel. 
Sweet princess, I entrust my case to thee. 

MiCHAL. 

From now forget that thou hast speech. Good 
night. 

[Exit Adriel. 
Now, my old dolt, if I can trump your fate, 
You, lone arrived, shall go in duplicate, 
Indentured to this unredeeming Saul, 
A bride and bother tucked on you withal. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 45 

Well, it grows crowded on this dizzy top, 
Kings generate so fast that some must drop, 
And we are pushed by an unlineal man : 
In such case he must save himself who can. 

[Exit. 



Scene 2. A wood near Gibeah. 

MiCHAL. 

The play drags on. The four prologuing acts 

Have marshalled up the elements of plot 

To such taugt^t tension with themselves, that if 

There's virtue in my tetragrammaton. 

They shall combine in fifth climacteric ; 

The base and task of which compounding is 

The hero : if he do his pretty role 

As I have writ him for it, there's no doubt 

About the riff-raff who fill up the stage. 

He's coming; I will practise on his sort. 

See if his temper which he's proved so hard 

Against the brunt of men and iron-forged war 

Will flux in woman's fire. Now gods, attend. 

To be all blind, and yet to be all eyes. 

To seem so simple, and to be so wise, 



46 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

To COO at mating time and caw at nest, 
Why that's to be a woman — at her best. 
And that is Michal. 

[Enter David, walking slowly. 
Oh! 

David. 

Am I a wolf. 
That you scream " oh ! " and frighten at my sight? 
I unawares have vexed your sohtude 
And mean no threat against your treasure. 

MiCHAL. 

Sir, 
I do beseech your pardon. That brave name 
Which you have knightly won, is your safe pledge 
Against dishonor. It was the surprise 
Of your most sudden apparition to my sense. 
Made my heart jump and break this little oh. 

David. 
You bandy me. 

Michal. 
With truth and your due praise. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 47 

David. 
The truth that praises me is traitorous. 
You are a branch of Saul and cannot be 
Unkind unto the stock on which you grow. 

MiCHAL. 

I am a seed fixed by my proper roots, 
And can divide the elements of things, 
Discern the foul from fair and liquidate 
The flush and ooze of our too muddy state. 

David. 
So much deserves an honorarium. 
But if you dare declare that good is good 
And call the dirty rubbish by its name 



MiCHAL. 

What then? 

David. 
Why then you are a puling, daft, 
Impolitic and common-branded fool. 
Such folk do not advance, but in the mire 
Of verities sink to oblivion. 

MiCHAL. 

Then I am sloughed ; for I will never truce 
With sycophants. But you*re in minor tune. 



48 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

David. 
Well, there are players of another sort 
Will pipe to you. As I came to this wood 
I met them going gaily up the hill. 

MiCHAL. 

To play my sister's prothalamium. 

David. 
And line their gizzards with king's provender 
Which they'll digest into rare melody. 
Ugh ! how they'll fret the air when they let out 
Their hold of porridge jig-steps and a quart 
Or two of dancing, nuptial-beaded wine ! 

Michal. ' 

They'll not jig up Goliath, do you think ? 
He fertiles too much ground in Philisty 
To get compact again. 

David. 

He's maggot-sure; 
But from him stinks this stale philosophy : 
A king's faith is as long as his distress. 
His promises which do not come to term 
While he's in fidget are uncurrent stuff 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 49 

That would not be a beggar's alms. You know 

By ceremony of most public banns 

Your sister was affianced unto me. 

And mine, could I recarnate that old hulk 

Who lies so large and sleepy, yes, mine, mine 

She should be. 

MiCHAL. 

Is it, then, just loss of her 
That makes you put this sad demeanor on *? 
Or loss of her concomitants *? 

David. 
Of both. 
She was the chiefest jewel in Saul's crown; 
Her eyes were like two pools unplummeted. 
Which mimicked back all things that looked in 

them. 
Deep, dark, confounding, devil-Satan's eyes. 

MiCHAL. 

Oh, foolishness, her eyes are bleary, sir. 

David. 
Her cheeks 

MiCHAL. 

Bosh with her cheeks ! 



50 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

David. 

Are kisses' food. 
Her hair, with spiced arome, plaits nets of love. 
Her laughter — there's a spring in Bethlehem 
That only ripples with such melody. 
Her fashion's queenly, by her all she's fair. 

MiCHAL. 

Thou hast not grown a beard, thou countryman. 
And hast no sense in these comparisons. 

David. 
And she, in her own self a dowry rich. 
Was wardrobed with rare honors of the state. 
Her, what she is, and her investiture, 
I made large play to win, and winning, lost. 
Is there not then a sequence in my mood ? 

Michal. 
He who says lost until the yawning pit 
Shall stifle out his quick, contriving mind, 
Is not a brave man, but a coward fool. 
Hark ! let me lay my hand upon your breast. 
Is that your heart which beats in there *? 

David. 

It is. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 51 

MiCHAL. 

Art sure ? 

David. 
Ouite sure. 

MiCHAL. 

Then prove it. There's no lout 
In Israel but has an organ there 
That thumps against his ribs as well as thine 
And keeps the worms away. But 'tis not heart. 
'Tis something sweetens him from carrion, 
Dead in all else. The feeble sheep's as much. 
To stave corruption off, to grow, to sperm. 
To make the common cycle of one's sort. 
Is that to live ? If you've a man-soul here. 
If there is spirit in your red, red blood, 
You'll cry loud " No " and rise, up from the brute, 
To empyrean of the souls elect. 
Is Merab only beautiful *? Is she 
Sole portioner of all emoluments ? 

David. 
She has one twin. 

MiCHAL. 

Oh many„ 



52 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

David. 

Nay, but one. 

Such paragons birth not in multiple, 
But being doubled fill repletion o'er. 
Have you a lover ^ 

MiCHAL. 

No. 

David. 

If one you had 
He'd be a glass to you, speak of your eyes, 
Tell your perfections, and with each new count 
Add one delection he'd not seen before. 
Here where this quiet pool nests off the brook 
Look down and by its proof say if your'e not 
The verity of her I have described. 

MiCHAL. 

I thought you were a man of sounding deeds, 
Of gruff deport and hot speech of the camp, 
Who'd choke to tell this dilly-dally stuff. 

David. 
I have a tough and weathered bark, but I'm 
A man and know a lily from a leek. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 53 

MiCHAL. 

And can call one the other with such grace 
They'll be for swapping smells at your cajole. 
Look in my eyes. Now, sir, swear they are dull. 

David. 
Swear fire is cold that burns'? Swear out of 

heaven 
The triple spangle of Orion's belt *? 
I fear perdition of such senseless oaths. 

MiCHAL. 

But have I not a squint ? 

David. 
I cannot tell 
What wiles of masquerade you may put on 
When suits you. But to squint I Perhaps you 
could. 

MiCHAL. 

My neck then, and my hair, my cheeks, my poise. 
Look well and say they are not beautiful. 

David. 
I cannot lie so, even to please you. 
Our father Jacob 



54 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

MiCHAL. 
Well, what news of him'? 

David. 
He's dead. 

MiCHAL. 

I must believe't, you're such a truthful man. 
Rise cypress and blast palm, for Jacob's dead. 
While he was on the roof of earth, they say. 
He had a rich and rare sagacity. 
Mayhap he's had the wit to cheat the worm. 
Who has his market in the cellar room. 

David. 
Old Laban second-bested him at that. 
He angled for a fish and caught a fowl. 
And did not know its feathers from right scales 
When he took bed with it. 

MiCHAL. 

Yet in the end 
He was a double winner. But, sir, pray. 
What relevancy has he to this glen ? 
And to our talk of her, and you, and me ? 

David. 
Well, Laban had two daughers. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 55 

MiCHAL. 

So has Saul. 

David. 
That's relevancy one. And Jacob served 
For both. 

MiCHAL. 

What apposition's there ^ 

David. 

There's none, 

Unless — you are of Rachel's lineage ; 

Queen of my heart, may I serve Saul for you *? 

MiCHAL. 

So quick I've sprung into this regency, 
I fear I am a mushroom queen of hearts, 
That grow out of my sister's sad decay. 

David. 
Is love a base, unwholesome, soil-fed thing *? 
'Tis an elixir all ethereal, 
A fire which Merab lit to smouldering 
And you have breathed to flame. For her I could 
Have unconsuming waited ; but you, you 
I must enjoy or perish in desire. 



56 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act II 

Such passion burns the fiber out a man. 
And leaves him in the ash. 

MiCHAL. 

Protest no more. 
I am a thing of state, to be disposed 
Where I the best shall fit necessity. 
Had I a love to give — why, if I had, 
rd give it to a man who, first, was brave ; 
Who, second, had a neat and pretty wit ; 
And, third, — oh, third, to him whose calves I liked. 
I must to Merab's bridal. Sir, good-by. 

[Exit. 
David. 

May we go plighting some day, you and I. 

\Exit. 



ACT III. 

Scene i. David's house, near Gibeah. 

MiCHAL. 

I'm in dilemma with two creditors 
Who both demand what I can pay but once. 
For faith cannot be halved ; 'tis all or none. 
I hoped — no, hardly hoped, but wished that I 
Could pay my father an annuity 
Of my full love, itself in principal 
Remaindered to my husband, the right heir, 
By me and by himself, of Saul's estate. 
But love will not be merchanted that way. 
The world is full of quirks, and 'tis more wise 
To say, " 'Tis so, 'tis sadly, badly so," 
Than say, " It ought to be some otherwise.'* 
There's an essential conflict in the stars 
Of David and of Saul ; their orbits cross. 
And by all computation they'll conjunct; 
Which dire event is now in imminence 
By my astronomy. What noise is that ? 

[Enter David. 
This panting haste speaks mischief What's to do'? 



58 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act III 

David. 
Your father's broke with me again; in rage 
Swore out my Hfe, hurled at me with his spear 
That in the wall crashed singing where Pd been. 
He's hot upon my track, his broad-nosed hounds 
Will rat me out. I'm lost. Have you no tears? 

MiCHAL. 

I've plenty but no time to shed them now. 

David. 
Henceforth I shall admire the savage Inds 
Who drown their women. 

MiCHAL. 

Love, your speech is dark. 
Henceforth? What is henceforth to one con- 
demned ? 
Who feels the stifle on his breathing-pipe ? 

David. 
There's hell. 

MiCHAL. 

Oh, so I've heard. When you reach there 
I'll ply the water cure most suitably. 



Scene i] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 59 

Just now it's good, sound legs, not sobs, you need. 
Then up, pluck heart, and give these pups the slip ! 
Once you're off straightaway and running free 
They'll not have bottom to stay in the chase. 
A wise fox makes his burrow with two holes ; 
He earths by one and outs the other end. 
The messengers will come in by the door; 
Then while they hawk the warrant of their haste 
And sniff the corners to make your arrest, 
Out by the window, and when out, away ! 

David. 
But Bezer — he's chief courser of the pack — 
Will not he sniff the game is in the clear 
Before I've got my head ? 

MiCHAL. 

Be sure he'll not. 
I'll feed him cheese, and when he gets his nose 
The scent will be too cold for following. 
I know that hound and how to play with him. 

David. 
My wife, you are more subtle, deep and wise 
Than that old serpent who in Eden yon 
Implanted Eve with his bad sophistries. 



6o THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act III 

MiCHAL. 

List ! when you hear him trudging through the 

door. 
Stay not for kissing, but with hot rash plunge. 
As one surprised in ilUcit love, 
Drop from my chamber window. I, distraught, 
Half-dishabilled, as if waked from my bed. 
Will parley what such bruit entrance means, 
Command him by my station and your rank. 
Which both resent his burly impudence. 
So much will give you to your second wind. 
Next I will let my woman nature out. 
Make little screams and ohs and wring my hands. 
And clutching here and there, as in distress, 
Will let my blushing flesh peek out my clothes. 
Quite modestly, in little teasing peeks, 
Just big enough to itch him 'neath the skin 
And take the soldier out of him. By then 
You'll be a league away — away from me. 
Oh husband, can I do so much for you ? 
See, look how black it is across the hills. 
Where unstarred night hangs to the limb of earth 
Her sable curtain and shakes from its folds 
Wild mordant beasts and cruel scapes of men ! 
Does God look in this Tophet where are done 



Scene i] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 6i 

Such things ungodly^ Oh, 'tis better chance 
To lot with one king's wrath than 'gainst a 

horde 
Of things mahgn, each sovereign where it stalks. 
Here there are tears at least and sepulchre. 
But there — oh, back these foolish, frighting fears ! 
You are a man and kingly in yourself 
Against disaster. 'Twas my little me 
Who'll be the lonely relict of your flight 
That spoke so doubtingly. 'Tis not, 'tis not 
The monstrous shapes that lurk out there I fear, 
But those which are — why, those which are like 

me. 
A woman trusts her lover's strength but not 
Her lover's heart. Forgive my jealousy ; 
'Tis Adam-old, 'tis woof of us, and so 
'Tis not a fault but virtue of our love. 

David. 
Sweet Michal, you weave nets to cage me in. 
Let me lie in your arms and die. No, no, 
I could not die, but my immortal soul, 
Slipt through the rips the knives sunk in my 

flesh, 
Would hover scatheless, sipping on your breath. 



62 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act III 

MiCHAL. 

I hear the soldiers now. Away, away ! 

God bless you. One more kiss. Good night. 

Good-by. 

\Exit David, 
[noise below.'\ 

Yes, yes, old bat I hear thy reveille. 
I'd fain have dreamt one blissful moment more; 
But I will put my waking garments on 
And mask the woman who is warm within. 
Now passion pause and masquerade begin. 

[Exit. 

Scene 2. Saul's house. 

Saul, Abner, Jonathan, OflBcers. 

Saul. 
Is't not enough to fall and not be mocked ? 
I gendered with a woman and by law 
My get should be an human. Where's the slip ? 
The silly rabbits procreate themselves. 
The she-wolves whelp their kind unbastarded. 
All nature couples to derive itself 
But me. To me's reserved this miracle 
Of sireing what's unkind. Oh, cruel hate ! 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 63 

Has damned adultery lain in my bed *? 
Not even that foul leech of honor could 
Enwomb abortion so unnatural. 

Jonathan. 
But father 

Saul. 
Put a smother on thy speech. 
Thou hairy one ; this David's Jacobed thee 
Out of thy birthright and my daughter made 
Confederate in wage against my throne. 
Henceforth let kings who'd last be celibate. 
The serpent's in the woman and 'twill bite. 
— How has she so balked our authority^ 
Our royal warrant, this full hour despatched, 
Commanded her production at this bar. 

An Officer. 
My lord, the messengers have just returned ; 
I'll learn their news. 

Saul. 

Throw to the dogs their news 
And send their baggage in. 

\_Exit Officer. 



64 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act III 

My heart's turned stone 
And stony judgment it can render now. 

[Enter Bezer with Michal. 
What, Bezer, so soon back *? I had prepared 
To send a tortoise posting after you. 

Bezer. 
My lord, the man you sent me to arrest 



Saul. 
Grew hungry waiting. I remember now 
I've heard the magi, wise in searching, found 
That in Chaldsea worms can't catch a fox. 
Jump to some news. 

Bezer. 
The princess, whom I've brought 

Saul. 
The prisoner. Don't oil your music here. 

Bezer. 
Put hindrance to our entrance, told us lies 
That David had been taken ill ; the while 
Unmannerly she in his bed rigged up 
A shaggy, rude, preposterous manikin 
At which we gaped and swallowed the gross sham 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 65 

For honest, she so mocked soHcitude 
Lest he should waken. 

Saul. 
(Aside.) It is hard to hate 
Rascahty when it's so deftly done. 
The clumsy knaves are punished twice their due, 
The masters of bad craft are left to breed. 
— Stand forward, Michal. By much evidence 
You're charged with being traitor to our throne 
Which you should doubly love. Our enemy, 
Who would supplant us, you have helped escape 
And put contempt upon our royal writ. 
Against this heinous crime have you defence *? 
I put you to your plea. 

Michal. 

Most noble Saul, 
I am a woman, without counsellor 
Or without art forensic which can draw 
A nimbus upon naughtiness. By night 
Fve been dragged hither by these surly men 
To plead my capital offence. My heart — 
For women have that silly core v/ithin — 
Is flustered with the conflict it's been through. 
I, thus undone, am haled incriminate 



66 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act III 

To answer, what ? For life ? Were that stake all 
rd hilt the dagger here where all's so white 
And let my poor soul from its ambient flesh. 
What's life when all is gone that sweetens it *? 
I'd play a die for mine, nor give a care 
Which face it fell. But to die infamous ! 
For that I will defend what I have done 
In simple speech that has no praise but truth. 
The king is just and he shall judge my cause. 
That son of Belial — for I'll spare to name 
This one who should be nameless for his shame — 
With bold derision, at the edge of night 
Burst in my chamber. He'd a hunted look. 
So snarls the quarry-coursing, tusked wolf 
When he's crossed by a lion. With great oath 
He leaped upon my throat — see, ye are men, 
Where sank his talons in! commanded me 
To be accomplice of his bad escape 
As I loved life. There is no more to tell 
But what you all do know. I did his will. 
I'm guilty, and of sentence only ask 
That it be speedy. 

Saul. 
Ah, thou simple one. 
Who in thy zeal our process to obey 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 67 

Paused not to don thy grave and seemly robes 
But came with peeking shoulders which preach 

out 
What pity 'twere to part them from thy neck ! 

MiCHAL. 

Why, justice, sir, is bhnd. 

Saul. 

Yes, but not deaf 
To these mute advocates. Henceforth I'll have 
A chancery of spare and sour old maids 
To try my felons feminine. Oh hell ! 
How that chaste bench will hew out equity ! 
My council, you have heard the evidence. 
What will you do with it ^ The commonwealth, 
Whose solidarity holds you in place, 
Stands by the faithful prop of all its parts. 
This David has turned traitor to our love. 
Eased off the common burden and escaped 
By aid of this accused. To this tough much 
It is confessed. But to the gravamen 
Of her indictment as accessory 
She pleads duress. If you, as honest men. 
Believe her testimony you must judge 



68 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act III 

How far it lifts the onus of the fact 
That she has done a wrong unto the state. 

Jonathan. 
Most noble Saul, and you, grave gentlemen. 
None is more loyal to the state than I, 
Nor with more reason, being of its pith. 
I love my sister, but with lesser love 
Than justice. If she's false my greater love 
Makes Hagar of my kinship. Hear me then. 
The base of crime is moral. It must be 
Act overt of a free, contriving will. 
Its essence is the malice, not the fact. 
Can brutes do murder, treason, rape *? Or is 
There arson in the lightning ? If these be 
She's criminal to gibbeting. I've done. 

Abner. 
Your Majesty, I am a plain, rough man 
Who do not know the niceties of law. 
But as I fight I speak. My trade of war 
Is aboriginal, it taps our stock 
And by its age has an authority 
Above these academic after-growths. 
Its sole code is empirical. It has 
No metaphysics and no sophistries. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 69 

No ifs, no buts, no logic and no lore ; 

But tests its findings in the crucible 

Of conflict where the drossy, base alloy 

Goes volatile and leaves the proven truth. 

In practice then of this my trade I've found 

That God has built his universe upon 

A law primordial of struggle, which 

Extends its sanction over brutes and men, 

To neither moral, cogent yet to both. 

Eat or be eaten — when you've smelted out 

The flub-dub and judicial rhetoric 

From the word-matching systems of the world. 

That's your unfusible residuum, 

Gape at it as you will. Was Michal forced^ 

Was Michal free "^ Does Michal lie ? What 

odds? 
The question is. Is Michal dangerous ? 
And by the answer which you all must give, 
Then crush her like the viper which she is. 
The devil needs a paramour. I've done. 

Saul. 
The votes are balanced. Let some other speak. 

An Officer. 
Let David suffer for what David did, 



70 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act III 

Another Officer. 
Yes, and let her go free. 

Another Officer. 
So I. 

Another Officer. 
And I. 

Saul. 
She's fair without and swart within, 
She's straight as truth and tort as sin. 
She's angel, demon, all between. 
But always, everywhere she's queen. 
And it's a stern matter to chop off royalty. Let 
her go home and play the devil no more. 
We'll have an eye to her. 

[Exeunt all but Saul. 

What curse is in this tawdry thing, a crown, 
That it can put the blight on nature so ? 
Make sons unfilial, daughters false, and scorch 
The heart out everyone ? All, all alone, 
Unrooted in v one human, clasping love, 
I stand, like some poor sere-leaved, sapless shrub 
The buff of every snarling wind that blows. 
Safe only in their conflict 'gainst themselves. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 71 

*Twill not last long, but while it does I'll flaunt 

My dry old shell unto the weather shock, 

And to the unruled forces cry in mock : 

" Fm king, abate, go hang," Ho there below ! 

You devils of the world incinerate, 

Peep out the ground and parley with a king. 

Is there a soul in Sheol, a black soul. 

Imago of myself? Is it called Saul ? 

Oh, that is I ; not this who bruits here. 

But while my flesh parades in heaven's air 

I'm alien to the fellowship of hell 

And spirits disembodied, and must dwell 

In purgatory, spitted to my throne, 

A king of multitudes, a man alone. 

[Exit. 



ACT IV. 

Scene I. The cliffs of En-gedi. 
David, Abishai. 

Abishai. 
Last night I chid you — pardon, sir, the word 
In one whose love you've proven — when I found 
You posted like a vulture on this rock 
Which pinnacles in frightful eminence 
Above the gorge. Yet you are here again. 
You look o'ermuch upon this spreading view 
Which mimicks the infernal, and become 
By contemplation colored with its gloom. 
What cheer is in things hideous *? Return 
Unto your men who need your heartening. 
If you will roam your eyes, look Judah-ward 
Where pleasant fields reach out their offerings 
To you, their advent king. Shuck off this dream 
And cast forebodings to the scuttling night. 
The golden day of opportunity 
Already, with its dappling harbingers. 
Leads in the orient of fortune. Up ! 
There's matin work before the noonday crown. 



Scene i] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 73 

David. 
Abishai, do you believe in fate '? 

Abishai. 
In yours I do, or I should not be here 
Where hell crops from its nether bowl and shocks 
The vault of heaven. But we have no time 
To put the world in creeds. I, sir, believe 
In legs for running, swords for fighting, and. 
As he can use these, David to be king. 
That's short and crisp and lets me sleep at night. 

David. 
Two rain drops that were twins, each heaven- 

wombed. 
Fell on Libanus. One — it had no choice — 
Went laughing to the west, where it discharged 
Into the great blue sea and danced away 
To mingle in achievements, ocean-free. 
The other, by course long and tortuous, 
Fell in this coppery, unbottomed lake 
Whose roots flow round the littoral of hell. 
The liquor of the damned. By this I see 
'Tis but a stone's throw between destinies. 
Oh well, I'll go with you and tease the hope 



74 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act IV 

That I have fallen on the ocean slope. 

But who comes hither, bounding like a goat 

Across the rocks? Haste must have lent him 

hoofs 
Or twenty times he should have slipped and fell 
Where falling's death. His rashness tells his 

name, 
Ahimelech, and bad news are his wings. 

\Enter Ahimelech, 

Ahimelech. 
My lord — 

David. 

My lord of fleas ! When you've your wind 

Chop out this sick fanfaronade of talk 

And tell your errand, which seems overhot. 

Ahimelech. 
The king, informed by spies where you are hid, 
Is marching hither with three thousand men. 
We've seen his van, I have no more to tell. 

David. 
No more *? What you have told is quite enough 
To season me with jollity. I think 
The king comes not into this wilderness 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 75 

To slake himself with scenery, nor yet 
To tilt against these boulders adamant. 
Therefore, my dear Abishai, we'll test 
Your creed of legs. There's an agility 
That's learnt by hunted things. I'll risk a guess 
We play pranks with this royal infantry. 
Quick ! to my men ! I see the army's dust. 
Up to the rocks I and fight if fight you must. 

[Exeunt. 



Scene 2. The cliffs of En-gedi. 
Saul, Abner. 

Saul. 
My faithful Abner, what's this thing called age 
That sHdes men out the world ? 

Abner. 

I know not, sir. 

Except what's written by our chroniclers, 

That creeping Satan venomed life with it. 

Saul. 
His poison which he spewed into our blood, 
Was it against the spirit impotent? 



76 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act IV 

Or was it summit of his vile design 
That we, decaying in our enginery. 
Should suffer no abatement of desire ? 



Abner. 
The soul, sir, cannot have senility, 
Itself immortal. 

Saul. 
Can these fires then burn — 
Love, anger, hate, ambition — for all time 
And not consume to their extinguishment? 
That is damnation. Yet it cannot be 
That souls will live uneased eternally. 
They must, must sleep, so weary. Or they must 
Surcease in madness, rollicking and mad. 
ril lay me down awhile. And when kings sleep 
Supplanters on their helpless slumbers creep. 

Abner. 
I'll post the watch, my lord ; drink your full rest. 

{Saul sleeps) 
[Enter David and Ahishai 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 77 

Abishai. 
My lord, now prove my three-part creed com- 
plete. 
Plunge in your sword and David shall be king. 

David. 
Yes, king and murderer, myself at once 
Infractor and defender of the law 
Which is most fundamental to my throne. 
Such two-stuffed kings are effigies which last 
Until some rival pelts them down. 

Abishai. 

My lord, 

Is it then murder to take chance of war ? 

This Saul would slice your head off with more 

grace 

Than he would eat his dinner. But it haps 

The turn is yours for slicing. Help me, sir! 

If you've no stomach to let out his wind 

I'll take a hew at him. 

David. 

Put up your sword. 
See how he lies, his hands crossed on his breast. 
The curtains o'er his eyes, and to the world 



78 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act IV 

Hangs out the truce of sleep. Look at his 

mould ! 
For nature spoke on him the name of king, 
Imperial though sleeping. If you then 
Will hack your blade at this rare handiwork, 
Call back the roaming spirit to its post. 
Shout to his dozing sense, " Alarm ! Defend ! " 
Then draw and lay at him as man to man. 

Abishai. 
They say he hath much craft at swordsmanship 
And is three men for strength. I doubt yourself 
Would hardly be his match at quarters, sir. 

David. 

See how his fingers twitch, and now he groans. 

Our talk is filtering into his dreams 

And he becomes perturbed. Anon he'll wake. 

I'll clip away this fringing skirt of his 

As voucher that I'm not his enemy 

Though so maligned. 

{Cuts off Saul's skirt) 

Now to our crevices 
And watch the issue of this episode. 

[Exeunt Davidy Abishai 
(Saul wakes) 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 79 

Saul. 
I've slept and woke. Why, here's the miracle. 
That I, subtracted from my sluggish rind. 
Betwixt a wink can flit in carnival 
To the outposted stars and, volatile, 
Soar through the dome of heaven or deep hell, 
Both space and time defying. Yet, despite, 
That my excursive spirit can return 
Back from its primal void into my flesh. 
Is less this quality of miracle 
That thrice ten thousand times I have awaked ? 
Some day my errant soul will not come back. 
How loud they beat the summons. I have 

slept : 
How long*? But there's no time In lethy sleep. 
Days, hours, months, years, the cycle calendar. 
These are not time but scheme of it, wherein 
To plot in relevance the things we do. 
For time is action, conscious climaxes. 
Saul king has lived a thousand times more long 
Than Saul the herder. When we wake from 

sleep 
We take up time where we had let it pause. 
Ho, Abner; ho, my faithful adjutant! 

[Enter Abner 



8o THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act IV 

Abner. 
The sun has climbed a quadrant of the sky- 
While you, my lord, have gathered your repose, 
And now sits two hours past the noon. 

Saul. 

What news*? 

Abner. 

Of the pretender, none. As to ourselves 

The men grow disafFectioned in this wild 

And mutter about Jewry. 

Saul. 

Snarling dogs, 
Who love me for my victuals ! If they found 
This David they would fly at him as is 
Their savage business and bark from the kill, 
" Live Saul, and live the treasury of bones I " 
But if he wins his hazard for my room 
They'll lick his hand as easily as mine, 
Their voice as blatant and their guts as lean. 

Abner. 
Your Majesty, 'tis part of generalship 
To take men at their temper. I advise 
That you remove from this outlandish place 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 81 

To some more bland encampment where the 

fumes 
Of those two ancient cities of the plain 
Shall not provoke our nostrils. 

Saul. 

Let us go. 

Abner. 
Assemble ! 

[Enter soldiers 

Form your columns ! Forward, march ! 

[Enter David, Abishaiy Ahimelech, and 

David's soldiers. 

David. 
My father ! 

Saul. 
Halt ! who calls me father here ? 



Abner. 
The rocks have gendered David. 

Saul. 

By my faith. 

Enchantment is in this unholy place. 

If thou be what thou seemest speak again. 



82 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act IV 

David. 
My lord, I am no ghost of man nor worth 
This martial demonstration. Will the king 
Pursue a dog ? a flea ? 

Saul. 
A traitor, sir! 

David. 

Were half the world as bad as it's defamed 
'Twould stink to heaven. As to my own case, 
See this exhibit of my innocence. 
Your skirt, which I cut off the while you lay 
In sleep unguarded. Judge then if this be 
The guise of traitor, when I had my blade 
In tierce against your quick, that I forbore 
To give you your despatch. Does treason wear 
Compunction of that color *? 

Saul. 

If it do 

May all my captains vest themselves in it. 
My son, my honest David, let us here 
Swear amnesty of our too paltry strife. 

David. 
'Tis well. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 83 

Saul. 

Yet I like not your shabby crew 
Marauding on the fringes of our state. 
These brawlers, debtors, fugitives of law. 
Excreted from the civic government, 
Are minatory to our peace. If thou 
Wilt wear a fairer face of loyalty. 
Disband this riff-raff tagging at your heels. 

David. 
I've never used my force against the king 
And will not. 

Saul. 
Ah, my son, this Will's a bawd 
Who's chaste by lacking opportunity. 
When she is amoured by the Power-to-do 
A fig for her virginity. March on ! 

[Exeunt Saul^ Abner and soldiers. 

David. 
Get back into your rocks and sleep to-night 
Half-eyed and bolstered on your swords to fight. 
This ancient king is weather whimsical : 
He now blows west, but with no interval 



84 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act IV 

He may do right about and blast on us. 
His faith is gusty. He is dangerous. 

[Exeunt Ahimelech and David's soldiers. 
And if at last I shall be king, what then *? 
What's there that's worth the weariness to win ? 

Abishai. 
There's power, my lord, sweet power. What's 

weariness, 
What's every throe of soul, what's looming death. 
If we, before we gasp the world, can drink 
Inebriance from that bright chalice % See, 
This king who's mocked you, shamed you, and 

the host 
Of his abettors who have slurred your name — 
To tramp your foot upon their bowing necks. 
To plug their blatant mouths, to retribute 
Their gorge of slander back into their throats 
And cry, " I'm master, master," oh, tliat's sweet. 

David. 
It's bitter-sweet. For love will not be whipped. 
To tyrannize, to lay the rod on men, 
Makes vassal only of their baser part. 
Their minds free to contemn. That is the gall. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 85 

That is the mock of mastery. There is 

A past writ with my progress, hieroglyphed 

With my ascendant to meridian. 

My nascit, facit, debet, sociat 

Are almanacked where all the world can read 

And cry them back to me. So shall my state 

Seem to the common conscience less to rest 

Upon divine prerogative than on 

The swords of my tatterdemalion 

By whom I've levered to my vantage point. 

Oh, could we birth full purpled in our noon J 

Or by some art forget the carking past ! 

Abishai. 
We should be gods, my lord. 

David. 

But we are men. 

\_Exeunt, 



ACT V. 

Scene i. Mt. Gilboa, the Israelite camp. 
First Officer, Second Officer. 

First Officer. 
Where do the PhiUstines come from ? 

Second Officer. 

Where did the lice of the Egyptians come from *? 
Nature has spasms of fecundity, but how, 
you know as well as any other man — all 
being ignorant. The solemn thing is, they're 
here. 

First Officer. 

Since I took up the sword I've seen enough Phil- 
istines killed to build a mountain of, yet one 
would say that every corpse had come back 
twins. 

Second Officer. 

That's like enough. The surest way to breed a 
nation is to kill it off. And that's true of 
heresies as well. Opposition puts a vigor in 



Scene i] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 87 

its butt which, let alone, would die of sickli- 
ness. If the Philistines had not Israel to ex- 
ercise themselves against they, like a pack 
of dogs, would fly at one another's throats 
and eat each other up. 

First Officer. 
Have you seen the king ? 

Second Officer. 
Not to have converse with him these three days. 

First Officer. 
How seemed he then ? 

Second Officer. 
Calm ; calm as Chinnereth, so that it was danger- 
ous to take ship upon his humor. The mo- 
ment you blew upon him with the breath 
of speech he lashed himself to fury, raved 
against his confines and made mouths to 
swallow up the navigator who had launched 
into his lonely peace. 

First Officer. 
What's his ailment? 



88 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Second Officer. 
Rex bifidus, it's an old king's malady. Some 
time the sane and normal king was scratched, 
and from the wound, unhealing, budded out 
a king excrescent which has grown to the 
equation of its stock. If either half of this 
preposterous double were rift away there'dbe 
a king remaining under whom there'd be 
some direction of purpose. But with norm 
and abnorm keeping internecine strife, it's 
dark for Israel. 

First Officer. 
If one may trust the vulgar astronomy, the king is 
in his westing too, for his slanting beams 
warm not the people's love as formerly. 
There is in the gross populace a sense of 
when a king's in twelfth hour, and like the 
trefoil they fold in their adulation until 
another dayspring. 

Second Officer. 
I've noticed something of the sort and trimmed to 
it. Still it's a dangerous business to prog- 
nosticate kings under the horizon before they 



Scene I] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 89 

get there. There's a refrangent of their last 
degrees may mar our mathematics, and I've 
heard of twiHght sunstroke in such cases. 
I'd rather see the sea-snufFer on to-day be- 
fore I hail the morrow. Who goes there ? 

[^EnUr Doeg. 

DOEG. 

A friend. 

Second Officer. 
'Tis a time to mistrust friends. Your name ? 

Doeg. 
Doeg ; of some repute, I trust, in Israel. 

Second Officer. 
Advance. The king's chamberlain has always 
free passage. 

Doeg. 
Are you gentlemen studying the stars *? 

First Officer. 

Yes, and wondering how soon we'll be sent to 

dwell on them. There'll be some of us put 

rid of earth, I take it, before the year's much 

older. 

Doeg. 

Have you a craving for immortality ? 



90 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

First Officer. 
I've never shirked the brunt of an assault. Still 
I have a lustiness by which I am willing to 
defer my sublimation. Do you think the 
king will chance a battle with such disparity 
of numbers ? 

DOEG. 

I think he'll not bid battle come, but if it comes 
unbidden he'll not send his excuses. How- 
ever, he's not garrulous of his plans. 

Second Officer. 
I hear he's grown contained of speech. 

Doeg. 
An hour ago I passed him pacing before his tent, 
his eyes downcast, and twice I heard a groan 
rock his great chest, as if his prisoned spirit 
stretched itself within. 

First Officer. 
There's omen in that. I like not these seisms in 
a king. And it is said a fish was seen point- 
ing up the Kishon, scaled only to his middle, 



Scene i] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 91 

his forward parts being those of a man and 
bearded with hairs. 

DOEG. 

To the devil with your signs. If I could meet a 
sprat like that I'd set a net for him without 
a shiver. Stiffen up your nerves or go home 
to your women. One man, brave in the 
single purpose to win, is worth a thousand 
human shapes irresolute. If Saul fails in the 
imminent test there'll be no Israel. For what 
the Philistines leave will devour itself in the 
fight for the succession, and our enemies, 
which now we barely hold back on either 
hand, will roll over us like the Red Sea over 
the Egyptians. Whet up your blade and 
promise it one Philistine. I've business; 

fare you well. 

[Exit 
Second Officer. 
I believe we should serve the king best by letting 
holes into this Doeg. 

First Officer. 
Undoubtedly; but we would have to hold our 
noses at the job, he's so rotten within. 



92 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Second Officer. 
This battle will be crucial to the fate of Saul. If 
he fails he will hardly establish his dynasty. 

First Officer. 
Do you think David has the common love *? 

Second Officer, 
The common love is a small quantity in the mak- 
ing of masters. He has his party of course, 
but the serious fact is he has a pack of hardy 
adventurers ready to swoop upon the king- 
dom. And with the monarchy in suspense, 
who is going to say, " By what right '? " 

First Officer. 
True. Yet we have but five senses, and there are 
forces paramount which we cannot see or 
hear, smell, taste or feel. The powers of the 
air play with our poor parade, delimit the 
stupendous or press on the ignoble to un- 
hoped victory; men are the dummies of 
their arbitrage. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 93 

Second Officer. 
That's only a haggle concerning a prime cause. 
If there be these powers imponderable their 
militancy in our affairs will wear some name, 
and if that name be David it will be a com- 
fortable place under his banner. In a time 
of calm the wind may spring from any 
quarter. There's no use of guessing how it 
came, but set your sails to it. 

First Officer. 
I've duty at my post. Good night. 



Second Officer. 
Good night. 



Scene 2. The same. 



\Exeunt, 



Saul. 
Put down your haughty crest, Benamalek, 
And let me lay my arms about your neck, 
For I must speak away this load that's pent 
Upon my breaking heart and has no vent 
Except to you, my noble horse. Of all 



94 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Who genuflect and do me pomp, who call 

Me king, I have no trusty, only you, 

To whom I can unbosom without rue 

Of my o'erconfidence, but I must check 

The sympathy of words. Benamalek, 

The battle's in the front, and you and I 

Are going out to fight, perhaps to die, 

To die and transmigrate, in mad, wild flight 

Beyond the furry clouds, beyond the night. 

Beyond thirst, hunger, falsehood, to the land 

Of heartsease and ambrosial meadows and — 

So, so your pawing, lad ! you are half man 

Who being fed and warmed, yet by his ban, 

Cannot reduce life to the swinish goal 

Of hale digestion, but must plague his soul 

By ever living forward of his hour 

With whiling phantasms and glimpsed hopes of 

power. 
Curse, curse this striving spirit that in tease 
Cries " more " and will not lie at surfeit ease 
Like ganders in the sun. Go, browse, my boy, 
Until this consummation of our joy. 
— Is it so brave to die ? For the soul-fire, 
Blown to its spume by blast of battle ire. 
To leap its body's edge, its relict name 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 95 

Escutcheoned on the mnemaliths of fame ? 
The courage is to Hve, to buff earth*s lies. 
And unapplauded drudge to blank demise. 

[Enter Doeg. 
There goes that cursed Edomite. Ho, Doeg! 
Here. 

Doeg. 
My lord. 

Saul. 

Do you know an holy man when you see him? 

Doeg. 
Aye, my lord. 

Saul. 
How *? by his beard "? 

Doeg. 
By his beard, my lord, and by the saintliness that 
shines in him. 

Saul. 
You know the sight of saintliness ? So the devil 
knows light, it makes him squint. But it is 
as dear to him as holiness to you. Do you 
know what was the fiend's damnation ? 



96 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

DOEG. 

To live in hell, my lord. 

Saul. 
Tut ! that's not half. There are ten million souls 
in hell, and all less damned than he. What 
is the twinge that's in his arch estate '? 

DoEG. 

I know not, my lord. 

Saul. 
Why, to be king of hell. To wear an unabdica- 
ble crown, that is the pink, the sum, the ele- 
mental metal of damnation. 

DOEG. 

Perhaps 'tis so, in hell, my lord. 

Saul. 
In hell *? Perhaps ? Do you think the infernal 
is a topsy-turvy world ? Do you think to 
prank the ruler before the unsobordinate 
is only a nether badness ? 

DoEG. 
There are some who would chance the perdition, 
my lord, within the sunshine. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 97 

Saul. 
I have hopes of your soul, Doeg; for you have 
told a truth. But be careful how you toy 
with this chap Honesty ; he may take a grip 
on you, and then farewell to all your emi- 
nence. Honest men stay in the lees, only 
the other kind brim the cup. 

Doeg. 
These are hard words, my lord. 

Saul. 
And hit a hard mark. I sometimes wonder if 
those who have taken novitiate damnation 
of king in this world may not be eased in 
the next. 

Doeg. 
It is not a presumptuous hope, my lord. 

Saul. 
Go find a priest and send him hither. I want an 
apocalypse. 

Doeg. 
My lord shall be obeyed. 



98 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Saul. 
These hierarchs have lost their craft. Or are they 
too rebeUious to my throne *? 

[Enter a priest. 
Are you a holy man ? 

Priest. 
I am, oh king. 

Saul. 
Go to the Egyptians. 

Priest. 
The Egyptians "? 

Saul. 
Yes, that they may embalm you. If there's a 
holy man in Israel he should last to show the 
ages what fashion he was of 

Priest. 
I am a priest and of the loins of Levi. 

Saul. 
Now your words have the sound of truth. Can 
you divine from high heaven the fast decrees 
of the Omnipotent ? 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 99 

Priest. 
Oh king, I have in other times explored the black 
abysm of the fates, but now the practice of 
divinest rites will steal no oracle from the 
bhnd dark. The Urim does not illumine, 
nor night send its vision messengers. There 
is no conjure in the name of Saul. 

Saul. 

Get to your place. lExit priest. 

Alone, alone; a public derelict! a leper of the 
state whose health I was. Oh God, and 
thou to whom from the profound I raised my 
prayer hast shut thy heaven against my 
oratry. Alone *? Ha, ha ! are there no folk 
but the supernal, no god of orisons but one*? 
no armies but these surly phalanxes who 
mutter that I am decayed to rule *? Mundus 
trigeminus, God, the world, and — that place 
of last resort which counterpoises the grace 
of heaven. I will ambassador the powers 
below. Ho for a necromancer! ho for a 
peaked chin who can incant prophecy from 
the ground ! Abner ! 

[Enter Abner. 



100 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Abner. 
My lord. 

Saul. 
The night is dark. 

Abner. 
The moon is in the middle heaven, my lord, and 
with her gossamer robe blinds all the envious 
stars. Say you 'tis dark'? My sword! I 
could see a Philistine to a thousand paces on 
such a night. 

Saul. 
I said 'tis dark, 'tis treason to say otherwise. But 
treason is a foul smelling plant no longer 
when all my courtiers wear nosegays of it. 
What boots the moon if closed are all the 
windows of the soul '? How is there light 
if there's no light to me ? 

Abner. 
The king talks in riddles. 

Saul. 
For every sweet there is a sour. 



Scene 2] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL loi 

Abner. 

I have no doubt. 

Saul. 

For every day a night, for every birth a death, for 
every power beneficent a power malign, for 
Ormusd Ahriman, for Jehovah Satan; and 
between these opposites there is eternal and 
essential strife. I with formal requisite have 
addressed my cause to the celestial throne, 
but to no purpose. What then ? for there's 
no middle ground. I will memorialize the 
powers of darkness. But where's a legate 
who's accredited below and will bring me 
answer from the shades'? 

Abner. 
I'd rather not meddle in these uncanny things, my 
lord. 

Saul. 
You have a kinswoman who trades in magic ? 

Abner. 
She's eighty summers dried, good sir, and will not 
vex the world much longer. Pray, let her 
live her little term in peace. 



102 THF, TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Saul. 
There you go against the bit. Is she so tinctured 
through with badness that it will lessen her 
peace to do me a service ? For kings have 
their necessities as well as another man, and 
there is to them an exigence of alms which 
are not weighed in silver. 

Abner. 

Sir, you did havoc to the wizards, outlawed them 
and laid on their art the grievous weight of 
your authority. 

Saul. 

When our officer executed our proscription 
against the sorcerers who were leeching the 
people's wits, we winked at his forgetting this 
old dam. So much was for our love to you, 
dear Abner. That love's not less to-day. 

Abner. 
I thank my lord. 

Saul. 

Then lead me to her, Abner. Without an oracle 

I dare nor trust this imminent fight. I'll 

clothe myself in a disguise and be you mute 

of what I am. As a common shekel-doling 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 103 

man Pll test the virtue of her power. Lead 
on. [Exeunt 

Scene 3. The cave of the Witch of En-dor. 
The Witch of En-dor. 

Witch. 
Twenty years turned four times round, 
All my sisters in the ground, 
All my brothers turned to worms. 
All my fellows lived their terms. 
Half myself decayed and gone. 
Toothless, plumpless, stale, forlorn. 
Death's my social and I tell 
Esoteric things of hell. 
Mumble, jumble, one, two, three, 
So the dead come up to me. 
Jumble, mumble, eight, nine, ten. 
So the dead go down again. 

Heu ! heu ! heu ! it is cold top o' the ground and 
Saul is king. I'll take a quaff of hquor, so I 
will weigh more. 

[Enter Saul and two officers 

at the mouth of the cave. 



I04 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Saul. 
Is this the place, this the curst bowl of earth 
Which leaks to Sheol ? 

First Officer. 

'Tis the place, my lord. 

Saul. 
So leave me. 

First Officer. 

We obey, my lord. 



Saul. 

Yet stay 



First Officer. 
Your pleasure ? 

Saul. 
Let me press your hands. Good sirs, 
I thank you for your pains. Compose yourselves 
Within convenient call. Farewell, farewell. 
I'll enter though it blast me. Fare you well. 

[Exeunt officers. 
Witch. 
Black the pot and burn the stubble, 
Man is born to trouble, trouble. 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 105 

As the sparks go up, up, up. 
There's a serpent in the cup, 
There's a harlot in the wife. 
There's a maggot cored in Hfe. 

Hoo-00-00! the owl has a hooked nose, there- 
fore he's no Egyptian. 

Saul. 
Thou foul and blemished strump cadaverous, 
Avast your clickings ! 

Witch. 

Who commands *? 

Saul. 

A man 

Who from the air salubrious descends 

Into this crypt of pestilential fumes 

To parley with the souls in prison. 

Witch. 

Go, 

Return back to the roof of earth. 

Saul. 

Peace, hag, 

I have an errand and cannot return 

Unanswered. Hast thou sorcery ? 



io6 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Witch. 

Ho, ho! 

And art thou emissary of great Saul 

Who's come to hang me in broad spectacle 

Before his army *? 

Saul. 
By my faith, I'm not, 
But seek a numen of the under-world 
On a proposed adventure. If then thou 
Canst raise the speaking spirit whom I name 
To my intelligent and proving sight, 
Thou shalt not be the poorer for thy pains. 

Witch. 
Lentils gathered in the bud 
Are the humor of his blood. 
From his flesh a nettle grows, 
From his heart a ruby rose. 
Carmel daisies are his eyes, 
Thistles are his beard's disguise. 
Cast these herbs in smutty pot. 
Brew them bubbling, brew them hot; 
Snip of salt to germ the broth. 
From the scum a ghost will froth. 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 107 

Your honest leek hath a rank smell, for it's the 
saprophyte of Egyptians and they rot slow in 
the ground. 

Saul. 
Shut off your scratchy drivel, I've no time 
To dally with cheap mumblings and to sniff 
The steep of silly herbs. Provoke the dead 
Into my audience or else confess 
Thou art a lying, artless, thrice-damned hag. 

Witch. 
Whom shall I conjure from his sheeted sleep 
To corporate effulgence *? 

Saul. 
Samuel. 

Witch. 
He was an holy man and in great age 
Went weary to his rest. Disturb him not 
Or fear his choler. 

Saul. 
Fear thyself my sword. 
Thou ancient raisin, or attest thy craft 
By sudden answer to my will. Wilt thou 
Corrode my nostrils with narcotic fumes. 



io8 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Benumb my wits and to my glazy eye 
Trump up a bastard specter, unavouched 
By heaven or hell ? Aye, wilt thou trade on me 
His gibberish for prophesy ? Go hang, 
Thou pitted-gizzard ! 

Witch. 
Yet have patience, sir. 
Hush ! there comes one from the crowd. 
Now I see his trailing shroud. 
With deport of seer he glides, 
Twain his arms clapt to his sides. 
Proud his mien, his poll how white ! 
He no substance is but light. 
Now I see his flaming eyes, 
Samuel, arise, arise ! 
Sir, thou art Saul, the king of Israel. 

Saul. 
By that acclaim thou provest thy dark art. 
Yet tell me. Mystic, how the vision comes. 

Witch. 
I see a god ascending from the earth. 

Saul. 
What form has he ? 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL ^09 

Witch. 
An old man cometh up, 
And vestured with a mantle. 

[Enter form of Samuel, 

Saul. 

Samuel ! 

Witch. 
He halts and with inquiring eyes demands 
The purpose of his summons from the vast. 
Address him ere he shall dissolve again 
Into his natural invisible. 
For these incanted reappearances 
Are labored, short, and grudging of delay. 

Saul. 
Thou prophet, sage, and judge of Israel! 
I, suppliant, address thee from the ground. 

Samuel. 
Why hast thou me disturbed to bring me up ^ 

Saul. 
I am in straights of doubt and sore distressed. 
Against me the Philistines have brought war 



no THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

And God has gone from me. No more by 

dreams 
Nor by the mouth of prophets doth he ope 
To me my future way, but all is night, 
Unbeaconed, formless, undirecting night. 
Into which I go stumbling. If then thou 
Canst point direction to my guideless way, 
If there is pity in necropolis. 
Hear, hear me, and illume the sight of Saul. 

Samuel. 
Whereas Jehovah hath deserted thee 
And turned thine enemy, deaf to thy suit. 
Then wherefore hast thou brought me from my 

place 
To be thy interlocutor before 
The high assize of heaven and declare 
Its sealed decrees *? Thy argument is closed. 
Thy last word said in ultimate resort ; 
Henceforward thy most ritual address. 
Impinging against heaven's muniments, 
Rebounds unanswered. Thou art Saul accursed. 

Saul. 
Nay, leave me not, thou august form, but still 
Declare to me what's writ above. Speak on I 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL in 

Samuel. 

The Lord hath done as he affirmed by me. 

The Lord hath rent the kingdom from thy hand 

And given it to David, kith of thee, 

Because recalcitrant to his command 

Thou didst not do his wrath on Amalek. 

The Lord, moreover, will deliver thee 

With Israel to the Philistines* hand. 

To-morrow thou and those whose sin is that 

They hold their taint of origin from thee 

Shall vault mortality and be with me. 

[Exit. 

Saul. 

Hast thou departed, with no lurk behind. 

Back to thy natural umbrageous haunt 

Where myriads of disembodied shapes 

Sit postured round the architrave of hell, 

Unspaced nor space consuming? Hast thou 

gone*? 

No, nor canst ever go. Thy figment form, 

Dissolving to what minim beyond sight. 

Cannot steal off the blighting trail of words 

That like the slimy exude of the snail 

Declares thy passage. Words immortal are. 

They have beginning, but not end and term 



112 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Eternity, dipt only at the fore. 
The doom that's uttered is half done, grace left 
To say our prayers and don the formal robes 
In which to make our valedictory. 

Witch. 
Oh king, the simulacrum has retired 
And all the air is sane again. Arise 
From thy unroyal grovel and breast back 
The foes substantial which assail you. Feed 
Your stomach courage and by good, round fare 
Expurge the bile of malade spirits who 
Distemper your vacuity. Up ! Eat ! 

Saul. 
Are visions in the liver, thou crude hag. 
Or didst thou stew a gall in thy damned pot ? 
I will not eat. Hello, my officers ! 

[Enter two officers. 

First Officer. 
Your Majesty ! 

Saul. 
Am I still majesty ? 
There's something tardy in this poor old world 
If that be so. And does the sun shine, too *? 



Scene 3] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 113 

First Officer. 
It does. 

Saul. 
Thou liest not ? 

First Officer. 

My oath, I don't. 

Saul. 
The prodigy of Joshua again ! 
Are you a bachelor ? 

First Officer. 

I am, my lord. 

Saul. 
Then marry with this woman. 

First Officer. 

Please the king, 
She's somewhat overripe for grafting with. 

Saul. 
Tut, tut! what if you quarter age with her"? 
It would have been unwholesome once, but now 
It's smack in tune, the world's all upside down. 
If you will marry, for the custom is not yet purged 



114 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

out of the earth, make sure that your wife is 
no virgin and that she is past the age of 
child-bearing. So shall you be rid of two 
evils, jealousy and undutiful issue. I married 
in the lustiness of love and begat hopes. 
Beware, sir, of maidens, leastwise until they 
round their fifty mark. 

Second Officer. 
What ambling words are these, thou ancient 
dove *? 

Witch. 
In truth, sir, I can make no sense of them. 

Second Officer. 
What philter of concocted herbs have you 
Administered unto the king that he 
Is so turmoiled of reason *? 

Witch. 

None, good sirs. 
That he's not better for the taking of 
He's in the dumpy doldrums of his fast. 
I have a calf, fat on its mother's teat. 
Which is to humors of this maudlin sort, 
A potent purgative. But he'll not eat 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 115 

Second Officer. 
Most excellent, our sovereign, for our love 
Ship off this leaden gravity and rise 
Up to thy temperate and royal poise 
Between the poles of passion. What ! Is not 
Thy supplication done ? and said what's said ? 
Then break your fast and thick your blood again ! 

Saul. 
No longer am I debtor to this flesh 
But we have quittance struck. Still for your 

sakes, 
Good friends, I'll eat. 

First Officer. 
He'll eat. Let him be served ? 

[Exeunt, 

Scene 4. Mount Gilboa. 

Saul, Jonathan, Ahimanetz, Saul's Armor- 
bearer, Aides. 

Saul. 
As when a river, swollen by the flood. 
Creeps inching up its channel till at top 



ii6 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

It bulges over, and with ripping waste 
Sweeps up the plain, so these uncircumcised 
Crowd up our dike, break holes through its de- 
fense 
Which we as quick stop up but to delay 
The moment epochal when they shall leap 
The crest of opposition. Jonathan, 
The people love you, jump among them. Set 
The brawn of your affection to their help. 
Perchance they'll hold this surge back in its bed. 

[^Exit Jonathan, 
Perchance ! Ho, ho I Is there such thing, per- 
chance ? 
Is there a slip in Heaven's sovreign plans *? 
Or casualty with Omnipotence % 
Have men turned gods to make their destiny *? 
There is a season when we grow and grow 
With no volition, like the waxing moon. 
Success with broader lustre rounding us 
To our full radiance. Then, will or no, 
We shrink and shrink and go out in eclipse. 
Perchance ! Ho, ho ! A lie ! Perchance I, Saul, 
An atom in the universe, am lord 
Of its phantasmagoria ! Perchance ! 
Ahimanetz ! 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 117 

Ahimanetz. 
My lord? 

Saul. 

Your eyes are young ; 

Look over to the battle's confluence 

And say what you can see. Come, talk your 

frowns ! 

Ahimanetz. 

Our men dispute the ground with valor, sir. 

Saul. 
Thafs in their grain, but which way leans success? 

Ahimanetz. 
Sir, these Philistines are no mortal sort 
Which can be spitted down to lie, but each 
Dismembered sows the ground with sudden crop 
Of surgent progeny. 

Saul. 

I much admire 
Your politic circumlocution, sir. 
To spit it out in brief, your meaning is 
We're overmatched. 

Ahimanetz. 

Why, then, I fear we are. 



ii8 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Saul. 
But here comes one with news. 

[Enter Messenger. 

Messenger. 

Your Majesty! 
Saul. 
Curtail your deference and out with it ! 

Messenger. 
The enemy makes vantage everywhere. 
Such slaughter's done as must make heaven weep 
And with her pluvial tears wash and erade 
The red, red stains that sully the fair ground. 

Saul. 
The bulbul sat in a bay tree top 

And sang a roundelay. 
A sorry kite gulped him in spite. 

For that's this old world's way. 

Thou hast a pretty song, lad, but it is somewhat 
too frolicsome, too antic in its measures, too 
merry, oh quite too merry. Sombre it with 
a little gravity and thou shalt pass for a rare 
chorister. Hast thou no more of thy tune ? 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 119 

Messenger. 
This only, let the king make haste to flee. 

Saul. 
That's out of pitch. 

Now thou art but a common cackling fowl. 

Stand by and give advisement when you're asked ! 

\Enter a second messenger. 
What, sir ? 

For I perceive you're loaded with report. 

Second Messenger. 
Thy sons Abinadab and Jonathan 
And Malchi-shua have been slain. 

Saul. 

Why, so 

They're in no danger. Did you scurry here 

To mumble such inconsequential stuff? 

Discourse about the living, as to say : 

" I saw a quail run in the bush below. 

And hast thou mouth for quail to-day ? " or thus : 

" I met a maid as I came up the hill. 

And she perhaps she won't, perhaps she 

will." 

A poxy lad preceded you who said 



I20 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

That some Philistines, rudely casting off 
The ceremony with which we forfend 
Approach unto our person, sought to force 
Themselves into our presence. Of which fact 
I had some inkling when a singing barb 
Shot with bad friendship dipt me near the heart. 
You have no twaddle, have you, of that sort 
That's rattling in your noddle unexpressed ? 

Second Messenger. 
We're overridden by Philistia 
And he who runs not while the running's good 
Will get his hamstrings cut. 

Saul. 

Then get away ! 

[Exeunt Ahimanetz^ Aides and Messengers 

What, orderly ! Did you not hear the word 

That's reinforced by double nunciate ? 

You are a worthy man and have a claim 

Upon a salvage of this thing called life. 

Armor-bearer. 
I heard but, master, give no heed. 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 121 

Saul. 

No heed ! 

Have you so fat a wit that you must taste 

The iron in your gut before you go ? 

I swear you it is not worth waiting for. 

It hath the bite of mustard thrice extract 

To perpuissance. Ugh ! the archer's dart 

That just now flanged my ribs gives me a twinge 

That samples the reahty. Go, go I 

Armor-bearer. 
I will not go except the king precedes. 
That is my duty. 

Saul. 
Duty ^ what's that word? 
I heard it when a lad, long, long ago. 
But it is quite outgrown in these new times. 
Your duty ! Tush ! The thing is obsolete. 
Or rather, in our modern criticism. 
Is reinterpreted in better taste. 
Your duty is to fit with circumstance. 
Clean up your virtue when it's popular 
And let it tarnish when it's out of vogue. 
Keep oaths up to the edge of profit, but 



122 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Be always plastic to the changing times. 

So shall you be wise, moral and esteemed. 

Yet this one thing stamp in your memory : 

If s duty's one eternal cardinal 

To always save your skin. Now will you go ? 

Armor-bearer. 
No, master, till my going follows yours. 

Saul. 
Still obdurate '? Then as you'll serve me yet 
Be surgeon to my need. I have a wound 
Here in this throbbing place that will not heal 
Save by a lancet's prick. Whip out your sword 
And rip it to this aching fester spot; 
Let out the disappointments, griefs, despairs. 
And start me on my road to Paradise. 

Armor-bearer. 
I dare not. 

Saul. 
Dare not? 

Armor-bearer. 

No, nor will not, sir. 



Scene 4] THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL 123 

Saul. 
You dare not, will not do your king this ease "? 
It is not murder, nor yet treason, but 
A deed of benison, by one short hour 
To thus forestall the rank defilement which 
These cursed Philistines will enact on me. 
Draw and deliver me my quittance ! 

Armor-bearer. 

No. 

Saul. 
Then know that by your disobedience 
You are not autocrat to make me live. 
Hail, ye penumbral host, of shade dilute, 
Invsible until death's shadow ! Hail ! 
And you who carry still your flesh, farewell. 
My going is abrupt? Forgive it then, 
If any be who still bear love for Saul. 
For why should I wear welcome to its threads 
And the contumely of my underdress 
Show through the tatters to a gaping world 
When I have here a ribbon of raw steel 
Will slip me neatly off? Ho, all ! farewell. 

[Falls on his sword and dies. 



124 THE TRAGEDY OF SAUL [Act V 

Armor-bearer. 

So dies the majesty of Israel, 

A king in whole, and one who was a man 

Until his night, o'e flapping on his day, 

Spread twilight on his soul. And I, poor I, 

Whose office was to tender him and serve. 

What do I yet ? the pageantry all gone 

In which I played a super part. Off, off 

This costume of the stage ! The lights are out. 

Why flickers yet my taper ^ Snuff, dull flame ! 

In life our states were wide; in death the same. 

[Falls on his sword and dies. 

End. 



btr o iwk 



